This paper analyzes the development of a public bike system initiated by a civic organization that treats participation as a core principle. The analysis shows that the satisfaction of the goals pursued through the adoption of participative principles, amongst which the respect of citizens' personal experiences in the design of their world, is a difficult task. The near identity between the system designed with the help of citizens and other systems offered by large industrial companies cast doubt on the capacity of the participative principles to produce outputs that would represent genuine alternatives to careless design. The difficulty stems from the willingness to take participatory procedures as necessary conditions to the realization of democratic ideals in modern liberal societies. Putting forward principles for their own sake drives us away from the ideals of liberal democracy that promote efficiency in the actions we adopt, over and above sole obedience to a common practice.